Relational Policing

The goal of relational policing, writes Michael Hodgkiss (a police sergeant in England), is to protect and help members of the public, as well as to bring offenders to justice. (Hodgkiss notes that this goal was explicit even in the original instructions to the Metropolitan Police in 1829.) However, there has been a tendency in recent years for police officers to become increasingly functional in their responses to crime. In this context, relational thinking offers a new or renewing perspective for policing. It points to the human and relational dimensions of policing as more important than business-related performance targets and assessment.